PSG TOO GOOD FOR MARSEILLE
Ligue 1 leaders claim the derby bragging rights
PARIS Saint Germain continued their stroll towards the French title with a 3-0 home win against bitter rivals Olympique de Marseille on Sunday but forward Neymar left the field on a stretcher late in the game as they extended their Ligue 1 lead to 14 points.
Kylian Mbappe, a Rolando own goal and Edinson Cavani put the capital side on 71 points from 27 games after a clinical performance at the Parc des Princes in an ill-tempered game in which the hosts got six yellow cards and the visitors five.
PSG finished with 10 men after Neymar was carried off with a suspected ankle injury eight minutes from time after coach Unai Emery had already made his three replacements.
“We showed that it’s a very special match for us and we got an excellent result,” Emery said. “The injury to Neymar was the only negative. We hope it’s nothing serious, but we have to wait for further medical exams.”
The coach said initial tests showed it was a twisted ankle but he added further exams late yesterday would reveal if there was more serious damage.
The Paris club will now sweat over his availability for the March 6 Champions League game with Real Madrid.
PSG lost the first leg of the last 16 tie 3-1 in Spain on Feb 14 but Emery was optimistic his worldrecord signing would be fit for the return leg.
“We must be patient but if I had to say something today then I would say yes, he will play.”
Sunday’s result left Marseille in third on 55 points, two behind second-placed Monaco who were held to a 3-3 draw at Toulouse on Saturday.
Olympique Lyonnais were denied their first Ligue 1 win in over a month when St Etienne’s Mathieu Debuchy scored a last-gasp goal to secure a 1-1 away draw in France’s hottest derby.
• MADRID: French striker Antoine Griezmann hit a hat-trick as Atletico Madrid thrashed Sevilla 5-2 on Sunday to cut the gap on La Liga leaders Barcelona back to seven points.
The result was also a boost for Manchester United, who face Sevilla in the Champions League last 16 second leg next month after the two sides were locked 0-0 from the first game.
“I’m very happy with the team’s work, but a little less happy that we conceded two goals,” said Griezmann. “It’s good that we have several forwards who score goals, but the most important thing is the three points.”
On Saturday, Luis Suarez hit a hat-trick as Barcelona thrashed neighbours Girona 6-1 while Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice for Real Madrid in a 4-0 defeat of Alaves.
Real are third, seven points behind Atletico and 14 back from Barcelona.
Earlier on Sunday, Santi Mina scored both goals as Valencia defeated Real Sociedad 2-1 to stay firmly on course for the Champions League next season.
The victory took fourth-placed Valencia to 49 points, just two behind Real and eight ahead of Villarreal in the race for spots in the continent’s top club competition.
• ROME: Champions Juventus’s Serie A game was snowed off on Sunday as Lazio moved third with a 3-0 win over Sassuolo at the expense of AS Roma who were beaten 2-0 by AC Milan.
Juventus are a point behind leaders Napoli, who played Cagliari in Sardinia late yesterday, and had been looking to move top against Atalanta in Turin but for blizzard-like conditions which saw five centimetres of snow pile up before kickoff.
“It’s possible to play in these conditions, but it would not be a spectacle worthy of the top flight. There is also the issue of potential harm to the players,” said Juventus director Beppe Marotta.
Ciro Immobile and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic continued their goal-scoring sprees to lift Lazio into third, as Patrick Cutrone and Davide Calabria gave AC Milan their first win in the Stadio Olimpico in six years.
Roma — who had been on a three-match Serie A winning streak — slipped to fifth behind Inter Milan who beat bottom side Benevento 2-0 on Saturday, with AC Milan just outside the European places in seventh.
“Obviously it’s a wake up call,” said Roma coach Eusebio Di Francesco, of the defeat which came just days after throwing away a lead to lose 2-1 to Shakhtar Donetesk in the Champions League.
“We cannot be happy with this result, nor our season overall. We completely lost our way after the first goal.”
AC Milan play Lazio in the Stadio Olympico in the Italian Cup semi-final tomorrow before next weekend’s derby against Inter Milan. Gennaro Gattuso’s side are also through to the Europa League round of 16 where they meet English side Arsenal.
• BERLIN: RB Leipzig missed the chance to move into second spot when they suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat by Bundesliga basement side FC Cologne on Sunday, while Schalke 04 jumped up to third with a 2-0 win at 10man Bayer Leverkusen.
Leipzig seemed headed for a narrow victory after taking a fifth-minute lead through JeanKevin Augustin but were stunned by two late goals against a Cologne side who remain bottom.
“We deserved to lose. Our performance in the second half wasn’t like us at all,” said Leipzig’s Sweden winger Emil Forsberg. “We went into the lead and should have come away with the three points.”
Schalke improved their chances of a top-four finish with a win at Leverkusen thanks to a simple sidefooted goal by Guido Burgstaller in the 11th minute and Nabil Bentaleb’s penalty in the 89th after Panagiotis Retsos brought down Breel Embolo.
Schalke striker Franco Di Santo said: “We came here with the mentality that we needed the three points. We fought like lions and I think we deserved the three points.”
With pacesetters Bayern Munich having extended their lead to 20 points despite being held 00 at home to Hertha Berlin on Saturday, the rest are battling for Champions League places.
Borussia Dortmund, at home to mid-table FC Augbsurg late yesterday, could narrow the gap and boost their top four hopes in a tight battle with two points separating second and sixth.
Dortmund have 40 points along with Schalke, with Eintracht Frankfurt, who lost 1-0 at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday, on 39 while Leverkusen and Leipzig are level on points with 38.